Escape Route
by Lattelady
Summary: Pre-series. We're not simply sending our child to the Other Side so she isn't killed.  She carries with her the hopes and dreams of all of the Outer Zone.


**Disclaimer: **Tin Man does not belong to me

**Timeline: **Pre-series

**Rating: **PG

**AN: **How DG escapes from the OZ as a child. No pairing. This was written a few years ago. I found it while cleaning out some folders.

* * *

**Escape Route**

By Lattelady

* * *

The Queen and Prince Consort sat in mourning beside the small coffin of their youngest daughter. It was late, the first moon had set and the second was halfway across the sky.

"Finally," Ahamo sighed, as the door closed and he was alone with his wife. "I thought Tutor and Ambrose would never leave." The two men had wanted to join the royal couple in the traditional night vigil for the dead. It had taken a softly spoken request from Lavender to send them on their way.

"They loved her, too." The Queen pressed her fingers to her lips to keep from crying. It had been a long night and there was still much to do before morning. She needed to reserve her strength for what lay ahead. If she gave too much thought to what had happened, she would breakdown and all would be lost.

"You're sure about this?" The Consort opened the coffin. Tears filled his eyes as he looked at his child, her beautiful dark hair surrounding her pale face. She truly appeared dead.

"Yes, I'm sure." They'd planned hastily but it was all they could think of. "We must do it now, or we'll be discovered. The sleeper spell will only last a few more hours. I didn't dare use anything stronger." She took DG from her husband's outstretched arms. "If this is to work she must be on the Other Side before the magic wears off."

"What about Azkadellia?" A father shouldn't have a favorite daughter, but he did. It was Az. It was hard for him to believe that she had killed her sister, but the evidence was lying in his wife's arms.

"There is nothing left for us to do." Lavender's words caught in her throat and she had trouble breathing. "Our eldest is lost to us. Maybe if I'd realized sooner…" she couldn't go on. She'd failed her oldest child in the worst possible way. It had taken DG's death to make the Queen realize that Azkadellia wasn't simply having teenage mood swings exacerbated by maturing magic. There was evil at work that was nothing like the previously happy thirteen year-old.

"Here, you're shivering." Ahamo placed a long cloak around his wife's shoulders and pulled up the hood so her face was in shadows. "Are you strong enough to do this?" He knew what it had cost her to bring DG back from the dead.

"I have to be. We're not simply sending our child to the Other Side so she isn't killed. She carries with her the hopes and dreams of all of the Outer Zone." Lavender looked into the face of her Angel and let tears fill her eyes, but she didn't let them fall. "She will return at the time of the next eclipse and set all of us free. Until then we must find a way to survive, our people must find a way to survive."

"I'll be here when you get back." He kissed his wife and daughter. "I love you both," his voice broke when he thought of what The Queen had ordered him to do over the next few weeks. It would start with drinking and nights spent away from the castle, until finally he'd simply leave, appearing to have deserted his family in their time of grief.

"I love you too, my darling." The Queen kissed him one last time before summoning the tiny bit of magic she still had. With a small prayer to the gods that it would be enough to get her where she needed to go, she closed her eyes and pictured Milltown where it sat in all its glory on the Old Brick Route. Moments later, instead of smooth marble beneath her feet she felt uneven stones.

"Thank the stars," she sighed. She'd deliberately materialized on the road well outside of the village populated by androids. If anyone had seen her arrive out of thin air, it would have given away her identity, something that must remain secret at all cost.

Walking was difficult with DG in her arms. It took the Queen twice as long as it normally would have, but she was determined. She moved steadily onward, following the road the first Dorothy Gale had traveled in her quest to outsmart a Witch.

"You lost, miss?" A brown-haired, female nurture unit asked. "We don't get many visitors this early in the morning." She liked humans and was glad they were welcome in her town. She knew that some were not to be trusted, but that was a decision better left to others.

"I've come to see Father Vue." Lavender hugged DG tightly to her body. The Queen was terrified for her life, her child's life and the lives of all who she ruled. "Please, I need his help."

"Wait on the porch, I'll see if he's about."

Queen Lavender Eyes stood waiting to see the old android. "Hush my Angle," she whispered as she felt the child begin to waken. Lavender knew DG would appear awake to Father Vue but the spell was still strong within her, lulling her mind to a restful quiet place. There would be no frightful memories to carry with her to The Other Side.

The Queen looked up as the first sun peeked over the far hills. Its rays shone down on the Old Brick Route, making it sparkle golden and new in the morning light. For the first time since she'd found DG's body, Lavender felt hope. The storm was almost upon them, they would not outrun it and it would be devastating, but the small child she held tightly to her breast would be their salvation. The road of her great-great grandmother glittered with a promise foretold and a future yet to come.

**The End**


End file.
